Former U.S. Army medic indicted for fighting in Syria

6/21/13 12:50 PM EDT

A former Army medic from Arizona was indicted Thursday for fighting in Syria in coordination with the Al-Nusra front, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group working to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's regime.

The indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. charges Eric Harroun, 30, with conspiring to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization and with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction overseas. The weapons, according to the indictment (posted here), were rocket-propelled grenades and grenades. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

However, Harroun's lawyers contend that their client didn't join with Al-Nusra and that an image presented to a federal magistrate in April as evidence of Harroun's affiliation with a terrorist group doesn't show what prosecutors contended.

"The government claimed in its Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint that Mr. Harroun broke the law by fighting with Jabhat al Nusra, a designated terrorist group, and by conspiring to use rocket propelled grenades in support of the Syrian opposition without lawful authority. The government is wrong," federal defenders Michael Nachmanoff and Geremy Kamens wrote in a motion Wednesday seeking release of Harroun. He's been in custody since his arrest in March as he returned from the region.

"Jabhat al-Nusra would not allow an American who had not been extensively vetted to fight with its members," the lawyers said, citing declarations from experts on the militant group, which is an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The defense filing (posted here) appears to concede that Harroun admitted to fighting with Al-Nusra, but that he was mistaken.

"The video [of the press conference] makes clear that the group is not Jabhat al Nusra, but instead announces the formation a military force called the al Nasser (Victory) brigade, which is affiliated with the al Aqsa Islamic brigades near Raqqa in the northern area of Syria....The video is consistent in style with groups that are affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, and is inconsistent with the conclusion that the group is part of Jabhat al-Nusra," the defense filing says.

At a hearing in April, prosecutor Carter Burwell said it would be illegal for an American to travel to Syria and take up arms against Assad's regime with any opposition group--even though the Obama Administration has been calling for Assad's ouster and is backing forces like the Free Syrian Army. Indeed, the indictment filed Thursday suggests that any American using a grenade overseas "without lawful authority" has committed a serious felony carrying a potential term of life in prison—or even the death penalty if the government can prove that death resulted.

But the defense lawyers say in their filing that cases from the 1800s establish that there is no general prohibition on Americans traveling overseas to fight in military combat.

A spokesman for prosecutors did not respond to a request for comment Friday.